Happy Birthday Grandpa Cy!

Bryson's grandpa turned 90 last week! That is pretty impressive, but if you knew him, his age would be the least of his accomplishments. He is just the coolest guy. He was a an incredibly charming and good looking fighter pilot in WWII (also fought in the Korean War). In his early days in the service, he earned the nickname of "Cyclone" because his flying skills were so amazing that he was like a cyclone in an airplane. That nickname stuck, and even long after his retirement as a full Colonel, he still goes by "Cy" instead of his first name. Anyway, he is the neatest man. He has an amazing memory and tells the best stories. He also loves to tell jokes, but he often sets them up like a true story in the beginning, so you don't know he's playing you until the punch line. He has this great, deep voice that sounds wise and makes every story and joke better.
Well, we had a birthday party for him this weekend, and it was fun to celebrate his 90 years life so far.


Pam got chocolate pies and asked me to make some raspberry sauce to go with them. Well, I got this great idea to also shave little chocolate C's and chocolate curls that look like cyclones to decorate the pies with. I was pretty pleased with myself on that one... it seemed like something my mom would do. Here is the finished result.




Here we are at the party


These next few pictures are from other parties recently that didn't get their own post.
This one is before our ward Christmas party. Thanks for the coat, Crystal! It's so festive!


These are from the Infuse Christmas party (Bryson's work). They throw the BEST parties! We played a white elephant game with gifts that make adults feel like little kids on Christmas morning. We ended up with 2 Southern California city passes, which include 3 day park hopper passes to Disneyland, as well as passes to Universal studios, SeaWorld, and the San Diego Zoo/ Wild Animal Park. Woo Hoo! Some of the other gifts included flat screen tv's, laptops, digital cameras, etc, etc. Good times!

Turkey Day

I'm about a week late on this post, but I thought I'd give the Thanksgiving highlights. We were in San Diego with mom this year, and it was a great holiday. I love Thanksgiving because besides being reminded that I have so very much to be grateful for, I get to eat so very much delicious food!

Sadly, I didn't take any pictures of the actual feast, but I did get a few of my mom's table settings. This won't do it justice, but I had to include at least one


Debut photo of Mom and Roger


Family shot before the feasting and bulging bellies


The day after Thanksgiving, we all went to the zoo and made some furry new friends



"Little pig, little pig, let me in..."


Making friends with a goat


They were a lot more interested in the polar bears than this picture would suggest


Davis the great polar bear tamer!


This is what happens when I ask John-kai to smile, but it's a cute picture of Meg


Here we all are channeling our inner giraffes. I'm taking votes on best giraffe face... my vote goes to Bryson






After the zoo, we hung out at mom's house and helped her decorate for Christmas.
Here, Davis is showing off his best spiral. He wants to try out for quarterback for BYU... after Max Hall's performance in the last game, we think he has a shot!


Davis helped decorate the tree. He put up a few ornaments all by himself.




The highlight of the trip for Davis might have been his "swim" in Grandma's giant bath tub. He is obsessed with water in all forms, and he was in there for over an hour! Oh, how I love those curls!


These two shots are from the day after we got home, but I couldn't resist. My two favorite people in one picture... how cute is that? This little guy loves his daddy!

Surprise!!!

For Bryson's 30th birthday, I threw him a surprise party, with tons of help from his family. It was a 70's themed party, in honor of his birth year (1978). We asked everyone to come dressed in 70's clothes, I made tons of decorations (and bought a few, including a disco ball), had 70's themed food (fondue, pigs in a blanket, meatballs, even a green jello mold), and I tried to set the mood with playing Star Wars upstairs and 70's music downstairs. One of the highlights was the roast- Summer found an old video of Bry singing in a school concert around age 11, then a few people got up to tell embarrassing or funny stories about Bry (his grandpa's was the biggest hit), and we ended it with watching one of his Divine Comedy skits where he was dancing in spandex tights. Good times. It actually turned out to be really fun, and the best part was that Bryson was actually surprised! As usual, I am posting way too many pictures, but this time I put them in a slideshow so that you can choose to look or not look at your leisure. Enjoy!

Happy Birthday Sweetheart!!!

Today is Bryson's 30th birthday, so in honor of his 30 amazing years of life, I'm going to make a list of 30 things I love about him. (in random order)
1.His dashing good looks
2. More specifically, his amazing jaw...with his bone structure, he should have been a movie star!
3. He is such a romantic, and always makes an effort to make me feel special and loved
4. He is incredibly generous, almost to a fault... he would do anything for friends or family
5. He is an amazing father. Davis practically jumps across the room every time Bryson walks in the door so that he can get to him faster.
6. He is a very hard worker, and is happy to do it so that I can be home with Davis
7. He always makes me laugh. (and everyone else too).
8. He makes a mean pancake.
9. He still gets me water every night before bed.
10. He was one of, if not THE cutest baby/kid I have ever seen.
11. He is a good priesthood holder and honors his role as such.
12. He makes any party or gathering fun (even if it gets a bit loud).
13. He is very passionate about life and shares his passions with others.
14. He spoils me... probably a little too much. He still likes to surprise me with things like flowers, jewelry, or massages.
15. He's very athletic
16. Bryson is awesome at skiing and always happy to teach people.
17. He is very close to and nice to his family, always remembering to spend time with them, including his little brother and grandparents.
18. He has a strong testimony and is not afraid to share it.
19. He is loyal- to family, friends, work, sports teams,etc- anything he loves or believes in.
20. He still likes to cuddle.
21. He is a surprisingly good dancer.
22. He is very helpful with Davis and around the house
23. He comes home for lunch almost every day to hang out with us instead of go out with the guys
24. He's not afraid to make fun of or embarrass himself for a laugh
25. He looks amazing in anything from a t-shirt and jeans to a suit.
26. He likes/is nice to my family and NEVER complains about his in-laws
27. Whether pretending or not, he always seems to be attracted to me, even when I'm pregnant and 40 pounds heavier than usual!
28. the adorable half smile he does when he's trying to act like he's not as pleased with himself as he is (for instance, if I tell him how hot he looks and he's trying to deny it).
29. He is so good with kids , and much more creative about making up games for them than I am
30. He is the BEST, sweetest, most caring, cutest, most generous, loving, adoring, handsome, spiritual, funny, and all around AWESOMEST husband EVER! I don't know how I snagged him, but I am the luckiest girl alive to have him.
Bry, I love you so much and hope you have a great 30th birthday!

Happy Halloween!

So, I've been doing a lot of thinking lately. With all of the political turmoil and economic stress going on right now, I decided that something must be done, and I think I have figured it out. I thought to myself, "what is missing?" I will tell you what I came up with. There is a serious shortage of one piece vinyl unitards out there, and I for one, will not stand for it. So, I did my part and put one more vinyl one-piece out into the universe for everyone to enjoy. I feel much better now, how about you? (scroll down to the end of the post if you are curious). Seriously, though, we had a great halloween this year! Davis was old enough to enjoy things like carving pumpkins and collecting candy from strangers, and we got to dress up twice!

Davis really wanted to help carve the pumpkins, so we let him dig right in



We were very ambitious this year and carved two pumpkins for each of us... next year I think we'll stick with one per person








For our ward halloween party/trunk or treat, we went as a mummy family. We borrowed the costumes from Bryson's mom and created a make-shift mummy outfit for Davis out of an old ghost costume. Turned out pretty cute.




Finally, our crazy halloween night costumes... Bryson got this idea earlier in the week, and for some reason, I actually agreed to it. Here we are as the Bat family:





And for my solo debut as the catwoman:



My own Bruce Wayne incognito- Bryson as BATMAN


And Finally for the star of the show (sometimes the sidekicks do save the day)... Davis as the most adorable Robin I've ever seen: